"I would like to reiterate that this is a terrible idea," AEGIS repeated.

"Noted. For the fifth time," I said.

"We don't know what's up there, or worse, who's up there."

"Noted. Sixth time? Does that count?" I asked Lia, who was trudging alongside me on the black glass.

"I'll allow it," she affirmed.

"Would you take me seriously for a moment?" AEGIS pouted. "This is really potentially dangerous, here."

"I invite you to reprise your entire debate with Karu," I said, not slowing my pace.

AEGIS fell silent for a moment, leaving only the clack clack of us walking across the glass and the scraping of the sled.

Tem and Saga were the sled's only occupants, as AEGIS' plans to salvage the entire VTOL for parts was shot down by the consideration we weren't entirely out of fuel, and if we did want to make a quick escape, the difference of a few miles might mean everything. This was after she ripped off one of the doors already, though, so we had that much, and after hours of being cooped up in the cabin, all of us were very eager to stretch our legs. Except Tem. And then Saga was coerced to hop on because she ambled slower than any of us.

"So, why again?" AEGIS bust out, seeming unable to contain her words and frustration.

"Seven?" I asked Lia.

"Not quite yet."

"It is as I said before," Karu stepped in, "whatever we saw, whatever challenges it may possess, we shall face them. We shall appropriate whatever we require, and make an informed judgement on the situation once aware of what is available to us."

"And in the very likely case that they aren't just going to let us walk off with their shit?" AEGIS asked.

Karu grinned. "We have guns."

"Yeah, it's not getting to that," I cut in. Always with the murdering, that one. It was like having another half-Saga around, except this one flipped unpredictably instead of always being consistently batshit insane, which was somehow even worse. I heard Saga giggling at the thought and rolled my eyes at her.

We had a ways to go, but the distance was deceptive. From the air, it had looked like we were nearly on top of it, but AEGIS had placed the odd structure at a mile and a half away, and I knew better than to question her on matters of math. Though, after we'd landed, it seemed to almost melt away into the horizon, disappearing in the heat-shimmer like a mirage. If we hadn't already spotted it, I didn't think we'd have found it ever.

Which really just added another slice of paranoia onto that building sensation of wrong about this whole place. You could see forever out here, but you couldn't spot a building a little over a mile away. All kinds of wrong with that.

But as we approached, the structure came into view, becoming ever more constant than not as it materialized from the wavering black. Once we were close enough to make it out, it was a wonder we couldn't spot it from further off.

It was a white city, ringed with low curving walls spread wide, laid out like a clover. Towards the middle, the structures grew taller and more official, favoring cylinders crowned with white domes. A bit like the Taj Mahal, though I'd only ever seen pictures, and not so golden or ornate, but the same sense of height, of startling whiteness, of pillars rising from nothing, they were all there.

If it was a city, it was a small one. Though the outer walls seemed to range pretty far, the center of buildings looked barely the size of a downtown city block or two. But considering where we were and what we were crossing, that was already quite the achievement.

The size, like it's appearance on the horizon, was deceptive though. The closer we got, the taller I realized those outer walls were, realizing only when we were nearly at them that each of them was a good fifteen feet high, making the inner walls twenty or thirty, and the towers they guarded maybe fifty feet at their peak.

We reached final approach, the walls curving gracefully away from us on both sides, lines of pure white stone, a new color between the black of the ground and the grey-blue of the sky. They were arranged without cuts or lines, as though poured into place like concrete, and I had to wonder at their engineering.

And just how wrong Karu might have been about us being able to simply take what we wanted. It was beginning to occur to me that 'city' may have been a mislabel, and it should instead be branded 'fortress' or the like.

We were barely in earshot of the main gate when a figure appeared atop it, a pallid face with stringy moustache and eyebrows. He stared approximately at us, his eyes seeming drawn towards the geographic center of our group rather than at any one of us, and yelled something.

We all stood there like idiots for a moment, trying to parse what he'd just said. The fact that AEGIS was looking around meant it wasn't Japanese, and Karu seemed equally at a loss.

"And of course, he's a toad," Saga sighed. "I think I spoke too soon in declaring Tokyo the worst city ever."

"We're not even in this one, yet," I told her.

She shook her head. "I can feel maybe a dozen presences from here. Want to guess what they all are?"

"Then you were right," Lia grinned. "There is a connection between the toads and IkaCo and the source, and that is...they're all here. From here, even, maybe."

"Oh goody," Saga sighed.

The guard shouted down again, different words. Again we looked at each other to see if any among us understood, but this time, Saga stood up and took a step forward.

"Cuo wu. Wo men shi Exhuman."

That got us all staring at her, enough that I didn't notice the guard had disappeared.

"The fuck was that?" I asked.

"Chinese," she shrugged. "He was asking if we were human or not."

The stone of the gate split in half and beyond it, I could see the green of trees and water in basins and fountains, all made of the same white stone as the walls, though peppered with color. But more relevant, I could also see a line of men and women emerge, all wearing the same ceremonial-looking armor, cinched and armored inobviously in a few places, but mostly flowing fabric.

I didn't like the uniforms, they seemed designed to flow around the wearers. I guess that was practical given the heat and sun of the place, but it also made their movements hard to follow visually. I realized I was subconsciously assessing their movements for threats, which was perhaps jumping the gun.

"Have you always spoken Chinese?" Lia asked, sounding as shocked as I'd been, before this new attraction had lured away my focus.

"Um, well, my mom was first-generation, so yeah, I was expected to learn so I could write letters to lao lao. Though I never really got much past food and swear words, so, y'know, the basics."

"Are you swearing at them, then?" I asked.

She giggled, but we were interrupted by one of the guard shouting at us again. Now that he was closer and I knew what I was listening to, I…

...still couldn't imagine that as how Chinese sounded. I'd always heard it sounded like ching-chong-chang, but when actually spoken, I didn't once hear a single one of those words. Saga spent a few minutes conversing, and in it, I heard each of our names in introduction while she pointed. Finally, she turned back to us.

"Hmm, well, says he's going to test us. Athan, think you're up, buddy."

"What?"

Saga was saying something in Chinese in response, and I had to grab her to demand an explanation. "What?" I repeated.

"Well, my Chinese sucks, but I of course do know the word for 'test'. I had Chinese parents after all."

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"I don't get it. What does that mean?" I asked.

"You haven't...I guess your stereotypes of us are a little different, huh? Anyway, he wants to test us to see where we fall in the...the something. I wasn't really clear. Anyway, you're gonna fight. Have fun!"

"Saga, wait!" I shouted at her, but she yelled kai shi ba! and one of them advanced on me without hesitation.

Two things were apparent to me immediately. Three, if you counted that I was going to kill Saga after this. One, evident by how this guy moved, he was trained. He was graceful but guarded in his approach, taking almost shuffling steps so that his feet were always ready under him, always facing me, arms at the ready. And two, he was an Exhuman. Which was even more evident by how the light moved around him, as though I was seeing him through a funhouse, or a headache.

"To hell with this," said Karu, raising an arm, but Saga was there, standing in the way of the shot with determination scrawled on her face. Karu frowned for half a moment before pulling the trigger anyway, sending pieces of Saga scattering across the black glass, but in the instant after, she struggled for footing, swaying, swearing, and then both of their bodies hit the floor at the same time.

AEGIS caught Karu's head before it cracked on the ground, and we all just kinda let Saga squish on the floor. But the Sino guy was still advancing, and so I stepped forward before he reached all of us, pulling out my blades to keep him at sword's length.

He seemed to flicker like there were multiple of him, all coming at once from different angles. As one charged me and I slashed through it with no effect, I realized there weren't, it was a trick in my eyes, and so I closed them and focused on my second sight.

He couldn't trick that any more than he could shut down the neurons in his body. He was standing there, brazen, confident that he was hidden in his clones and distortion, and I let him believe it for a moment as I repositioned my weapons subtly, lashing out at the illusions which came at me.

And then, at once, I feinted forward, and then rushed to the side where he stood, my blades converging on him like he was magnetic.

They halted inches from him, all around his body. I felt like Jack, taking a peek at him through closed eyelids, to see him sweat from the heat of my blades.

It wasn't a bad try, but my powers outclassed his. I'd squared off with Tem too many times to be surprised by illusions, it was a bad matchup for him. I gave him a nod and then pulled the swords away once I thought it was clear I'd won.

…

Though it seemed, perhaps, that something was lost in translation. Because he was coming at me again, powers still in full swing. He was much closer now, and from the way he launched towards me with inhuman acceleration, I started to doubt that the illusions were the entirety of his powers.

It was actually scary how fast he was on me. My blades were still well out-of-place when he threw the first punch, and I only just slipped the blow, my head snapping sideways and down, the hot wind off his fist catching my ear. I had my hands up at my chin in a moment, and the kick he lashed out with next bounced off my guard without effect.

He was fast, but he didn't hurt that badly. Not after sparring with AEGIS, whose strength was easily ten times a person's...and while she held back of course, she was also...sometimes a little lost in getting competitive. I shrugged off two more blows and sidestepped another before retaliating with a hook to his side, which sent him back a couple steps with controlled breaths.

But his time was up. My swords were back in play, and they formed a web between the two of us, keeping up a guard and lashing out at him just like my fists had. He was just a little too fast, though, and every time I swore I got him, I found my blade trailing just a frustrating moment behind. I began to throw more blades at once, opening holes in my defence but closing the net around him, limiting his mobility so that his speed couldn't come into play.

I was also ready for it when suddenly he struck through one of my gaps, his extended foot caught in my arms.

"Gotcha," I told him. And then I spat blood as his other foot came out of nowhere and nailed me in the cheek.

My vision blurred for a moment in a way that had nothing to do with his powers, and in my head, over the pounding of blood, I could hear myself ripping off the kid gloves. If that's how you want it.

I slashed at him again now, and then tried to catch him with a blade the opposite direction, but he moved even faster somehow and dodged both. I had to focus, had to remember to close my eyes, and realized I was chasing an illusion somehow, and had lost track of the real one a moment ago in a sneaky sideways movement he'd done.

Again, I feigned ignorance and invited him in, but this time he didn't bite, throwing illusory attack after illusion after me, until I felt crowded by shadowy, wavering images of him, throwing punches at me that I would dodge on reflex, irrational fear of the incoming attacks making it hard to keep my eyes closed and really focus.

But he came in again, right after I closed my eyes for a second time, and I only barely reacted quickly enough, bringing my blades to bear right on him.

He was so frickin', frustratingly fast. I was worried his foot would catch me in the knee before my blades closed on him, and I didn't have time to anchor myself properly. I saw the blow coming, knowing that if he got there, he'd drop my leg under me.

He beat my blades. His foot connected with my leg.

It, uh, hurt less than it should have. Both of us looked down and saw he'd kicked straight through my pant leg, hanging loosely in my exoframe where my leg would have been. I saw what seemed a flash of comprehension from him, as he reversed, starting to pull his leg free.

And then my blades crashed into him. Two of them only, and not anywhere fatal, but enough to really drive the point home that I had this, and this farce could stop.

It didn't. He kept pulling his leg, tangled momentarily in my loose pant leg, and threw another punch, bruising my elbow where I barely caught it.

"Stop it, dumbass!" I shouted at him, cutting at him with more blades. I saw his nerves firing, sending the pain to his brain. I opened my eyes and saw black marks on his armor, angry red burns where I touched exposed skin. What the hell was this guy's problem? He hardly seemed to care.

Was this some kind of mystical bushido bullshit? Or was that a Japanese thing? Sinos were supposed to be craven and weak...which...thinking about it, was probably all propaganda again. If this guy was any kind of example, they were almost unstoppable and a huge pain in the ass, instead.

I twisted my feet by reflex as another punch came in, making it deflect off my shoulder instead of catching me in the chin, but the punch never landed. Instead, his body whipped around, impossibly fast. I swore as he was suddenly on the other side of me, and twisted my feet again to face him.

And then he whipped to the other side, even faster. I was bewildered, only just remembering to close my eyes again and verify it wasn't a trick, but it very much wasn't. Every time I spun, he spun with me, faster than I could go, even when I had the exoframe operating at top speed. It was like he was suddenly even faster, like he'd pulled a final trick out that I just couldn't keep up with. I couldn't even see his face or form anymore, he was just a blur, to all of my senses.

Was this how I was tested, then? He was holding back the whole time, perhaps gradually raising his power against me until he knew just how much I could take? I was a little worried, if he kicked me at that speed, he'd blow right through me. But how? How had he suddenly attained this insane level of power? Was his power reactive, maybe? Growing stronger as he was hurt, or the longer he fought?

If so, that was terrifying. He'd be literally unbeatable unless taken out instantly, which seemed a terrible way to test opponents. The only way to win would be to fight utterly without mercy and stomp him out from the outset -- but anyone who'd do that wouldn't be anyone I'd want to invite into my city.

So maybe that was the test, I realized. I was supposed to lose to this insane power, with grace and poise, accepting a loss against a foe I had no chance to defeat?

That sounded great in theory, but watching him go...I was terrified that the second I stopped, I'd have his fist in my skull. We were already failing to communicate somewhat already, and that wasn't even betting my life on it yet.

But that had to be it, I thought. He'd been whipping around me for a while now and not finishing it. That was his mercy, I suspected, and it would be all I could do to face him like a man accept the end of the fight.

I stopped, and the moment I did, so did he. His neurons were still going, but he was deathly calm, as though in a state of impossible focus. I swallowed hard and opened my eyes to see him.

His tricks were gone. No blurring or illusions, no nothing. Just him and me.

And he was unconscious as fuck. I blinked at him, not comprehending. As my focus fell away, I heard Saga laughing her ass off, literally rolling her bony butt across the black glass, while the others looked on with concern.

"I think you got him," AEGIS said, apologetically, as she advanced on me, her movements a little nervous and a little stilted.

"Um?" I asked, but she didn't seem to hear me, instead going right up to me and kneeling in front of me. The familiar top of her head and the handlebars of her pigtails made me stammer as she reached down.

She fussed with my pants for a moment and then pulled the man's leg free from my exoframe. I stared down with some confusion for a minute, wondering just what all the hell was going on here.

"Clever. And brutal," Karu said, also advancing on me and leaning heavily on me, her chest warm on my back. "To thread him through your own exoframe and then use it to whip him to and fro until unconsciousness, it is a strategy I must admit I have never yet seen. You have impressed me this day, Ashton."

"I did...that?" I asked stupidly. Looking down now, I saw the guy was indeed, beat to hell, his leg more broken and bruise than intact, and the rest of his body looking very much like someone had slapped it across the ground a few dozen times.

"With efficacy," Karu grinned, her arms draping across my chest.

"I thought it was very good, too," AEGIS said defensively, edging in on us. "No Sino would stand a chance, no matter how...worried I might have been...when this started."

"I knew it was over before it began," Saga grinned.

"Because you began it!" I shouted at her, suddenly remembering her role in all this. She cackled as another of the guards extracted his colleague and they all gave us a very short bow, before returning through the gates with the same precision with which they'd emerged.

"Anyway, you like, passed, or whatever," Saga said, looking much more bored already. "They say we're welcome to enter, and that you and I, we're uh...well you're ranked at something which I think means like 'warrior'. And I'm a 'priestess'. I think. So that's cool."

"Priestess or not, I'm so going to kick your ass, Saga," I growled. "The fuck was all that?"

She just laughed as she headed towards the gate, as though expecting us all just to fall in behind her. Which we did, because the alternative was wandering the desert until death.

I'd seen greenery and water through the gate before, but as we crossed the threshold, all traces of my irritation at Saga disappeared as wonder filled me. As far as I could see, nestled in the stone walls were verdant fields of green planted in rich dark earth, stone troughs which ferried water, happily burbling as it criss-crossed the fields, and dozens of buildings of white stone, pearlescent and perfect in their construction.

"Saga...what the hell is this place?" Lia asked in a reverent whisper, spinning in place just like the rest of us as she took it in.

"Lu zhou," she answered with a grin. "Or so they call it. Means, if I'm not mistaken, Oasis."

And an oasis it was. A true pearl of the desert, a gleaming circle of white in the black ocean of the glasslands.